MORNING INTELL: Obama Citizenship, Aging Reversed, Thanksgiving

BLOGOSPHERE NEWS:
November 27 2008



THE SCOOP:
* THANKSGIVING is for Thanks, Right?
* New Drug Reverses the Effects of Aging?
* 100s injured, dead in INDIAN Terrorist Attack
* Obama Citizenship Questions Continue
* Big Brother Alert
* Brainy Obama?

---

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

1. Turkey, Football, Dressing. Really, I didn't want to go anywhere anyhow: Roads, skies less full as Thanksgiving rush starts
   
2. The America-hating disease has spread like a brush fire upon the earth.
   America, the Blessing
   
3. Word wars: Most Americans prefer “Merry Christmas” over “Happy Holidays.”
   
4. Things To Be Thankful For In A Troubled World: The motto at the news networks may be, "If it doesn't bleed, it doesn't lead", but there's plenty of things to be thankful for today if you're in America.

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TWO STORIES FROM WIRED:

• IF You Think Social Security is in trouble now:
  Drugs Reveal Another Possible Cause of Aging: ""In principle, we now could have a way of reversing the effects of aging," said David Sinclair, a Harvard University gerontologist and co-founder of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, a company best-known for its development of an experimental drug called resveratrol."
  The government paying people until we're all 125? Maybe they'll start a lottery to see who gets Social Security after the age of 110.
• A Scientific Quandry:
  When Intelligent and Natural Design Collide: "On a recent flight to California, I found myself looking at man-made structures in the Nevada desert and wondering: did I really know, in a scientifically valid way, that they were artificial? Or was I simply resorting to the principles of Intelligent Design, which in other contexts I'm quick to discredit?"

---

• Minnesota Senate Recount, Update IX
  "The Coleman campaign has just issued the following press release that confirms the nightmare scenarios sketched out by John Fund in his Wall Street Journal column today:"
  
  
• Gold to shoot through the roof? Citigroup: Gold Over $2,000, Massive Inflation, Depression, and Civil Disorder. Maybe Citigroup is just talking about their company-wide economic conditions?
  
  
• 125 Dead, 900+ wounded--and counting: TERRORISTS HOLD MORE THAN 100 HOSTAGE IN MUMBAI!
  
  
• Let the Hollywood Purge begin!
  PROP 8 MAFIA CLAIM ANOTHER VICTIM:

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OBAMA CITIZENSHIP ISSUES CONTINUE

1. It may be a "First Read" at NBC News, but only if you've not been looking for the last six months. Duo take Obama birth challenge to Court Hard to ignore all of the court cases--but the other networks continue to do so.
   
2. Kenyan Ambassador tries to explain away his recorded statement from a few days ago. He still declines to answer a simple question.
   Kenya: 'I don't know' if Obama born in U.S.
3. The Obama citizenship issue in one concise interview:
   Alan Keyes Tells Us Why He Questions Obama's Presidency
   
4. David Broder: "When I started covering the White House more than 50 years ago, I believed that the smarter a president was, the better he would be. That was wrong."
   Good Time For a Brainy President

---

MEATY LINK FUNK GOODNESS

• BIG BROTHER ALERT:
  Border Agents Begin Using “Long-Range” RFID Scanners on ID Cards: "USA Today has a story on the new long-range RFID scanners reading ID cards as individuals drive toward the border."
  

  “By the time a car stops at the Customs booth, the agent will have the photos and information of everyone in the car. If a name is on a watch list or database, the person will be taken in for questioning."

  
  Long-range ID cards? While this might sound good for terror uses, it's potential for misuse by the government is high.

  “Once a particular individual is identified through an RFID tag, personally identifiable information can be retrieved from any number of sources and then aggregated to develop a profile of the individual.”

  
  
• Fauxtography for Dummies: Fauxtography For Dummies: Use PhotoShop, Catch Criminals. Interview with LAPD forensic photographer.
  
  
• All new for 2011, General Ford Cerberus Motors is proud to present The FannieCrat 3000, the first automobile designed by members of Congress for their adoring constituents. All new for 2011, GFCM presents the FannieCrat 3000 Luxury Sedan! It's a keeper!
  
  
• Lotsa LOLs: Terrorist Restless Leg Syndrome

by Mondo Frazier
images: dbkp file

DBKP at One Year: Schedule of Coming Stories

Blatant Plug Dept.




We're celebrating DBKP's one-year anniversary today, August 28, all through the next several days.

Besides the articles we've already published below, we're be releasing others during the next several days.

ALREADY PUBLISHED TODAY:

* Lindsay Lohan and Other Marilyn Monroe ‘Posers’
* The Day Calvin and Hobbes Died
* DBKP’s First Anniversary Edition: The Kissing Thrill-Seekers
* DBKP Celebrates First Anniversary: Truck Monkey Revisited
* DBKP One-Year Anniversary: Top Ten Most Popular Stories

YET TO COME:

* Big Days and Milestones
* Greatest Hits
* Top Videos
* MORE!

We were going to try and condense everything into today, but real-life events intruded--so we'll be dropping two or three articles through the weekend.

Thanks to all you readers!

You made it possible.


by Mondoreb
image: dbkp file

DBKP's Ten Most Popular Stories of our First Year

Top Ten Most Popular DBKP Stories
From our First Year
Combined readership on both DBKP.com & DBKP@Blogger




The Top Ten most popular stories of our first year (based on # of reads each has received at both DBKP.com and DBKP@Blogger.)


1 - John Edwards: Looking for Rielle Hunter’s Baby News, VP Love, After Obama Endorsement; May 15, 2008 by Mondoreb

The latest John Edwards scandal story on the Internet when the Enquirer cornered Edwards in the Beverly Hilton mens room on July 21. The only one that could be found written on the affair between January and July.

Rielle Hunter, the ex-campaign worker/video producer, who was impregnated by John Edwards--according to the National Enquirer (and at least one Hunter friend)--has had her baby and is still secluded, by many reports, in a North Carolina multi-million dollar home owned by an Edwards backer.

John Edwards, he of the "Two Americas--one that wears condoms, the other that doesn't--is back in the news. First, Edwards came out yesterday and endorsed Barack Obama. In related news, the NY Times reports that Edwards would "consider the role of vice president, and favored the position of attorney general."

2 - Hostage Negotiations: Chinese-Style; March 12, 2008 by RidesAPaleHorse.

Dramatic series of pictures, with RAPH' observations. This caught fire right before the Beijing Olympics started and hasn't let up.


3 - The Day Calvin and Hobbes Died: December 31, 2007 by Mondoreb.

Commemorating the loss of two old friends.

Twelve years ago today, the world became a little more sober place. Twelve years ago, a tiny corner of joy was extinguished for millions of readers of the daily comic strip, "Calvin and Hobbes".

Twelve years ago, the last Calvin and Hobbes episode appeared. The strip, created by Bill Watterson, was a small window on human nature.

4 - John Edwards Affair: Interview with David Perel, Editor-in-Chief of the National Enquirer: July 23, 2008 by Mondoreb.

Less than 48 hours after reporters from the National Enquirer corner then-VP candidate John Edwards in a men's room at the Beverly Hilton, Enquirer Editor-in-Chief, David Perel, grants us an exclusive interview and talks about the whole affair.

How did the supermarket checkout staple, The National Enquirer, scoop the combined forces of CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox News, Time Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, New York Times and the rest of the mainstream press in the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter Love Child affair?

“Inquiring minds want to know.”

After an hour-long interview with David Perel, Editor-in-Chief of the National Enquirer, we can now say with certainty: it was easy. The steadfast “cone of silence” placed on the story by the Mainstream Media (MSM) made it easy for anyone willing to do the legwork to grab the story from a decidedly-uninterested “respectable” press.

5 - Jennifer Moss: The Naked Lady Pictures and Videos: June 18, 2008 by Mondoreb.

Seeing activity on a couple previous stories we did on the Environmental Exhibitionist, Jennifer Moss, we stayed up all night to run down pix and videos from a just-posted Jennifer Moss website. The readers responded for the next two days.

The following links will take you to Jennifer Moss pictures and videos. Be warned: they are all NSFW.

6 - Lindsay Lohan and Other Marilyn Monroe 'Posers': March 3, 2008 by LBG.

Everybody wanted to be like Marilyn.

We took a look at some of the Marilyn Monroe 'posers', Lindsay Lohan, Madonna, Anna Nicole Smith and Britney Spears, who had themselves photographed in pictures similar to those which Marilyn Monroe became famous for.

7 - Rielle Hunter, John Edwards Love Child Scandal: Who is Rielle Hunter?: December 18, 2008 by Mondoreb

When we made the following observation, we had no idea how compliant the Mainstream Media would be in suppressing this story until late July 2008.

Who is Rielle Hunter?

The pieces are falling in place.

And the Edwards campaign looks like it doesn't have enough fingers to put in all the holes in this dike.

8 - William F. Buckley Jr: Ten Quotes To Remember Him By: February 27, 2008 by LBG.

LBG's picks get mentioned by NRO--among others.

William F. Buckley Jr. passed away today at age 82.

Buckley was the quintessential intellectual conservative, a modern day philosopher who lived life to the fullest. A novelist, debater, talk show host of TV's Firing Line, transoceanic sailor, founder the National Review, master skewerer, CIA Agent, and this is a short-list of Mr. Buckley's talents and professions.

9 - MySpace Cruel Prank Leads To Teen's Suicide: November 12, 2008 by LBG.

Our original MySpace Suicide story predates the media tsunami that hits the following weekend after Megan Meier's parents appear on Anderson Cooper and other shows to tell the story of daughter and her MySpace Suicide.

A cruel and unbelievably vicious prank perpetrated upon a young girl has stripped away the Leave To Beaver veneer of a suburban St. Louis neighborhood. A fourteen year old girl is dead by her own hand, her parents shattered and in disbelief. There will never be justice for their precious daughter.

Will there be justice for Megan Meier?

10 - John Edwards Scandal: Whatever Happened to Andrew Young? - UPDATES: August 5, 2008 by Mondoreb

Three days before the part of the nation that relies on the Mainstream Media was informed of John Edwards, Rielle Hunter, a baby and--goodness!--a scandal, we wondered where in the world was Andrew Young, who had claimed he was the father back in December. His claim was in a statement released by his attorney, who coincidentally, was a pal of Edwards' national finance chairman, Fred Baron.

Back in December, Young stepped forward, claiming he was the father of Rielle Hunter soon-to-be-born baby. From the National Enquirer's December story, UPDATE: JOHN EDWARDS LOVE CHILD SCANDAL!:

A former "Director of Operations" for Edwards' campaign, Young's last official position with the campaign was "North Carolina Finance Director." He left that job about a month ago - about the same time Rielle settled in Chapel Hill.

A source close to Young vehemently denies that he funneled campaign money to Rielle - who drives a BMW SUV registered in Young's name.

The story continues today.


That's our ten most popular stories to date.

More will appear later today.


by Mondoreb

John Edwards Affair: Additions to the John Edwards Scandal Library

Updated John Edwards Scandal Library includes additional stories added since the original stories from December 2007 through May 2008 were posted to DBKP@Blogger John Edwards Scandal Library.

UPDATED: August 16, 2008

August 16, 2008

* John Edwards Affair: When Private Lives Become Public Lies

August 15, 2008

* John Edwards Scandal Photo: John and Elizabeth Edwards with Rielle Hunter Dec 30, 2006 - Exclusive DBKP Photo!

* John Edwards Scandal: Silly Edwards’ News Before Things Turn Serious

* John Edwards Scandal: Enquirer, Blogosphere Vs. Mainstream Media

August 14, 2008

* John Edwards Affair: The Strange Behavior of Rielle Hunter and Andrew Young

* John Edwards Scandal: Bob McGovern the Enquirer’s “Inside Man”?

* John Edwards Scandal: Rielle Hunter, Edwards Photos from December 2006

August 13, 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: Who is ALJDJDD, Mystery Editor of Rielle Hunter’s Wikipedia Page?

* John Edwards Scandal: Copying Continues As Rielle Hunter Web Info Keeps Vanishing

* December Ross, DBKP Edwards’ Story Confirmed by MSM

* John Edwards Scandal: Who in the Edwards’ Campaign Ran the Cover Up? UPDATED

* John Edwards Scandal: Enquirer Pounds More Nails in Edwards’ Coffin

August 12, 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: Lost Nightline Video Footage?

* John Edwards Scandal: NY Times’ Info Theft Noted

August 11, 2008

* John Edwards Affair: Fred Baron - The Ties that Bind

* Mainstream Media Uses Blogosphere as Unpaid Research Wing in Edwards Scandal - UPDATED

August 10, 2008

* John Edwards Scandal, Left Blogs: No Edwards, None of the Time

* Edwards Affair: Edwards Claims Enquirer Love Child Photo a Fake

* John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Continues Deception in Interview

* John Edwards Scandal: The Many Faces of Contrition

August 9, 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: Sister Asks Edwards to Stop Bad-mouthing Rielle Hunter - UPDATED

* John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Statement, Interview Admits Little

* John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Defends Affair with Supermarket Tabloid Credibility Card

August 8, 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Releases Statement to Press

* John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Admits Affair, Lies, to ABC News

* John Edwards Scandal: WSJ Ties Media Woes to Scandal Non-Coverage

* John Edwards Scandal: LA Times Lifts Embargo on Edwards Scandal News

August 7 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: Is Fred Baron the Enquirer ‘Hush Money Man’?

* John Edwards Scandal: The Myth of the Edwards’ Denials

* John Edwards Scandal: Enquirer Alleges Reille Hunter Resided with Youngs in CA

* John Edwards Scandal: Money Man is Wealthy Dem Fundraiser

* John Edwards Scandal: Dems Worry, Call on Edwards To Come Forward

* John Edwards Scandal: Where in the World is John Edwards?

August 6 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: Enquirer Photos Give MSM a BIG Smoking Gun

* John Edwards Scandal: Enquirer Print Trumps Digital- JOHN Edwards Photos

* John Edwards Scandal: Enquirer Releases Photos of Edwards and Love Child

August 5 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: Whatever Happened to Andrew Young? - UPDATES

* John Edwards Scandal: Media Coverage Mixed; MSM Waits on Enquirer

August 4 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: June 2007 a Month of Coincidence for John Edwards

* John Edwards Scandal: DailyKOS Bans Stranahan for Writing About Edwards

August 3, 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: March Mystery of Edwards’ Non-Endorsement Revisited

August 2, 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: DailyKOS Readers Now Know; Others Remain In the Dark

August 1, 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: “Scandal Brewing” First TV Mention in NC

* John Edwards Scandal: KC Writer Cites “Veiled Threats”, Denials as Likely

* John Edwards Scandal: Did Hillary Use Scandal to Force Edwards Out of the Race?

July 31, 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: Birth Certificates, NBA Players and the Waking of the MSM

* John Edwards Scandal: Bob McGovern, International Man of Mystery

* John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Bolts from Reporters Once Again

July 30, 2008

* John Edwards Scandal: Enquirer Editor, David Perel “We Drew the Media a Road Map”

* John Edwards Scandal: Love Child’s Name, Sex Revealed; Hush Money Paid

* John Edwards Love Child: Wikipedia Editor Defends Go-Slow Policies On Edwards Entry

July 29, 2008

* John Edwards Love Child Scandal: Debate at Wikipedia Rages

July 28, 2008

* John Edwards-Rielle Hunter Love Child Scandal: The Video

* John Edwards, Rielle Hunter Love Child: U.K. Papers Help Break Media Blockade

July 27, 2008

* MSM Stealing Blog Content: Times Online Joining Growing MSM Trend?

July 25, 2008

* John Edwards-Rielle Hunter Love Child: Fox New Confirms Natl. Enquirer Story with UPDATES 1, 2 and 3

* John Edwards-Rielle Hunter Love Child: Fifteen Quotes to Watch a Coming Media Circus By

* John Edwards Love Child: Natl. Enquirer Reporters File Criminal Charges

* John Edwards, Bill Clinton, Gary Hart: Video Denial Trifecta

* John Edwards-Rielle Hunter Affair: Love Child Scandal Jokes

* John Edwards-Rielle Hunter Love Child: LA Times Censors Reporters on Story

July 24, 2008

* Edwards Love Child: Worst Denial Video Ever

July 23, 2008

* John Edwards, Rielle Hunter Love Child: Houston Reporter Asks Edwards - Video

* John Edwards Affair: Interview with David Perel, Editor-in-Chief of the National Enquirer

* John Edwards, Obama VP Chances: From the Short List to the Sh*t List

* John Edwards-Rielle Hunter Love Child: Story about to Enter MSM? UPDATES #1 & 2

* John Edwards, Rielle Hunter Love Child: What if they Gave a Scandal and Nobody Came?

July 22, 2008

* John Edwards and Love Child Mom Rielle Hunter Rendezvous in LA

* John Edwards Love Child, Rielle Hunter: Edwards Runs Into Men’s Room Fleeing Enquirer

* John Edwards, Rielle Hunter Love Child: Edwards Caught but MSM Just Now Catching Up

* John Edwards Love Child Scandal: Edward Caught with Mistress and Love Child

by Mondoreb
Source: John Edwards Love Child Scandal Library

The Failed War on Drugs: December Edtion

Time for the December Edition of the Failed War on Drugs. Resources and links illustrating the futility of trying to legislate people's chemical preferences.

And we have a Christmas stocking full of stories, links and ONE job opportunity for a student anti-Drug Warrior!

First, a look at the latest Zogby Poll concerning drug use and Americans.

December 5, 2007
99% of Americans Wouldn't Use Hard Drugs If They Were Legalized
Zogby Poll Suggests Prohibition Doesn't Reduce Use

Washington, DC -- Marking the 74th anniversary of the repeal of national Alcohol Prohibition, StoptheDrugWar.org today released polling results suggesting that drug prohibition's main supporting argument may be simply wrong. Drug policy reformers point to a wide range of demonstrated social harms created by the drug laws -- crime and violence, spread of infectious diseases, official corruption, easy funding for terrorist groups, to name a few -- while prohibitionists argue that use and addiction would explode if drugs were legalized. But is the prohibitionist assumption well-founded?

Zogby polling data released today asked 1,028 likely voters, "If hard drugs such as heroin or cocaine were legalized, would you be likely to use them?" Ninety-ninety percent of respondents answered, "No." Only 0.6 percent said "Yes." The remaining 0.4 percent weren't sure.

The results are similar to usage rates occurring today under the "drug war," as measured by the federal government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (formerly the National Household Survey). The 2006 NSDUH found 0.3 percent of the population had used heroin in the past month and 2.4 percent had used cocaine. Even for cocaine, the numbers are compatible, because Zogby surveyed persons aged 18 years and up, while NSDUH begins with age 12; and because of the poll's statistical margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

A comparison of drug use rates in countries with criminal penalties for drug use with the drug use rates of countries that have decriminalized personal use also suggests that policy may play only a secondary role in determining use rates. For example, in the Netherlands, where marijuana is sold openly in the famous "coffee shops," 12 percent of young adults age 15-24 reported using marijuana during 2005, as compared with 24 percent in neighboring France, where marijuana is an arrestable offense, according to data compiled by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction.In the United States, where police make nearly 800,000 marijuana arrests each year, young adults age 18-25 in the 2004-2005 survey year reported past-year marijuana use at the rate of 27.9 percent.

David Borden, StoptheDrugWar.org's executive director, commented when releasing the Zogby data:

"Prohibition is sending hundreds of billions of dollars per year into the global criminal underground. That money fuels crime and disorder on the streets of our cities, while simultaneously helping to finance international terrorist organizations. Meanwhile, inflation-adjusted cocaine prices are a fifth of what they were 30 years ago, and any kid who wants to join the Mafia can sign up to deal it in his school. Addicts are harmed by the prohibition policy worst of all. It's time to stop shooting ourselves in the feet, and to control and regulate drugs through legalization."

The full Zogby poll results, and additional information, are available online at: http://stopthedrugwar.org/legalization/

StoptheDrugWar.org (still known to many of our readers as DRCNet, the Drug Reform Coordination Network), is an international organization working for an end to drug prohibition worldwide and for reform of drug policy and the criminal justice system in the US. Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle for the latest issue of our weekly, in-depth newsletter, Drug War Chronicle.

Next, a collection of articles and links from Stop the Drug War.org.

# FEATURE: THE 2007 INTERNATIONAL DRUG POLICY REFORM CONFERENCE -- MR. COSTA MEETS THE OPPOSITION
The 2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference opened with a bang Thursday in New Orleans as the United Nation's top drug fighter addressed a skeptical and sometimes hostile audience.

# FEATURE: THE BIBLE, A BLACK BAG, AND A DRUG DOG -- A FLORIDA DRUG WAR STORY
In the latest installment of the Chronicle's occasional series on the day-to-day workings of the drug war, we go to Florida, where a drug interdiction exercise disguised as a traffic enforcement effort, some sheriff's radio shenanigans, a suspicious Bible, and a drug dog left one Key West man wondering what hit him.

Need a job?

# STUDENTS: INTERN AT DRCNET AND HELP STOP THE DRUG WAR!
Apply for an internship at DRCNet for this fall (or spring), and you could spend the semester fighting the good fight!

And now, a video report:




CORRUPTION

# LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
Troopers telling lies, troopers selling cocaine, cops peddling coke, Border Patrols agents peddling pot, cops peddling cocaine and pot, but not a single jail or prison guard this week!

# LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
An Indiana drug task force faces some questions over seized goods, the NYPD can't find some drug evidence, a Texas crime lab tech gets greedy, and so does an Indiana cop.


# SENTENCING: RACIAL DISPARITIES IN DRUG SENTENCES THE NORM IN THE NATION'S MOST POPULOUS COUNTIES, STUDY FINDS
A report released this week by the Justice Policy Institute finds that racially disparate sentencing is the norm in the nation's most populous counties.

# LATIN AMERICA: MEXICO'S PRESIDENT SAYS FIGHTING DRUGS, CRIME HIS HIGHEST PRIORITY
One year after he took office, Mexican President Felipe Calderon says the war on drugs remains his highest priority. Some 24,000 troops are in the field, but the traffic and the violence appear to continue unabated.

# EUROPE: BRITISH DRUG COUNCIL CALLS FOR HEROIN, COCAINE PRESCRIBING BY NURSES, PHARMACISTS, CHIDES GOVERNMENT'S DRUG STRATEGY CONSULTATION
As Britain's Labor government prepares to announce a new long-term drug strategy in the spring, the battle is heating up. Now, the government's own Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is calling for nurses and pharmacists to be able to prescribe heroin and cocaine, and chiding the government for making a joke of consultations around the new strategy.

THIS WEEK IN DRUG HISTORY

# WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.

# WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY


# FEATURE: PRESSURE MOUNTS ON CONGRESS AS SUPREME COURT, SENTENCING COMMISSION BOTH ACT TO CUT CRACK COCAINE SENTENCES
Both the US Sentencing Commission and the US Supreme Court acted this week to reduce the harsh sentences for federal crack cocaine offenders. But because of congressionally imposed mandatory minimum sentences, Congress must act to further reduce the injustice.

# FEATURE: DRUG REFORM GOES TO THE BIG EASY -- THE 2007 INTERNATIONAL DRUG POLICY REFORM CONFERENCE, NEW ORLEANS
The 2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference took place last weekend in New Orleans. Here is a taste of what is was like.

# FEATURE: LATEST TEEN DRUG USE NUMBERS OUT -- WHITE HOUSE CLAIMS SUCCESS, CRITICS SAY NOT SO FAST
The latest annual Monitoring the Future survey of teen drug use is out, and the Bush administration is claiming the numbers vindicate its anti-drug strategy. But a host of critics disagree.

# WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"Drug Czar Makes Absurd Claim That the Drug War Reduces Teen Tobacco Use," "Clinton Staffer Attacks Obama Over Past Drug Use," "Why Doesn't the DEA Just Crack Down on Medical Marijuana?," "U.S. Recommends Early Release for 19,500 Crack Offenders," "Ron Paul Blames Prostitution on the Drug War," "You Don't Want This!" "A Few Pardons Today -- Meanwhile the Pardon Attorney's Web Site Hasn't Been Updated Since the Clinton Administration." "Crack Sentencing Changes Made Retroactive!," "Is Rep. Dana Rohrabacher a Legalizer?," "Some Good News from the Supreme Court on Crack Sentencing."

# MEDICAL MARIJUANA: DEA THREATENS SAN FRANCISCO DISPENSARY LANDLORDS, DISPENSARIES SUE, CONYERS TO HOLD HEARINGS
In its battle against medical marijuana dispensaries, the DEA has brought its landlord-threatening letter campaign to San Francisco. Now, the dispensaries are suing in federal court, and the House Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on the matter.

# LAW ENFORCEMENT: SNITCH IN DEADLY ATLANTA RAID CASE SUES
Alex White made a career out of being an informant for Atlanta police, but when they asked him to lie for them in the Kathryn Johnston case, he instead went to the feds. Now he's suing the Atlanta police, claiming his career as a snitch has been ruined.

# EUROPE: SWISS PARLIAMENT REJECTS MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION
The Swiss parliament has rejected a popular initiative calling for the legalization of marijuana. But the Swiss Senate must still debate it, and it could go to a popular vote.

# DEATH PENALTY: VIETNAM IN DEATH SENTENCE FRENZY, 35 CONDEMNED FOR DRUGS IN PAST TWO WEEKS
Vietnamese courts have handed down death sentences to 35 drug traffickers in the past two weeks as the Southeast Asian nation makes a serious bid to be the world's leading executioner of drug offenders. Iran killed some too.

# WEB SCAN
Talvi and Bock on DPA conference, IHRA drugs/death penalty report, HRW/TATAG Thailand drug users and AIDS treatment report, Cannabinoid Chronicles, syringe exchange programs in 2005.

Russell Blackford presents >Leave Hingis alone - on tennis and cocaine posted at Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.

Our thanks to Drug War Chronicles for the heapin' helpin' of links and articles!
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

notes: Mondoreb
video tip: RAPH

January Edition of Failed Drug War: January 20, 2008.

Back editions of DBKP's Failed Drug War are kept at Failed Drug War.




Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Baby Grace, Riley Sawyers, Madeline McCann: Complete DBKP Story and Video Listing

COMPLETE LISTING:
Baby Grace stories by Death By 1000 Papercuts
[updated: December 11, 2007]

The story of "Baby Grace", whose body was discovered on a sandbar in a cooler, near Galveston TX on October 29, 2007. The body turned out to be that of 2-year-old Riley Sawyers.

Madeline McCann's story is that of a 4-year-old girl, abducted from her parents' resort room while the family was on vacation in Portugal.

Some speculated for awhile that Baby Grace may have been the missing Madeline. Her whereabouts is still unknown.

Baby Grace, Riley Sawyers, Madeline McCann:

He Says, She Says Battle Begins

Grand Jury Bring Capital Charges

Capital Murder Charges and Probable Cause

Riley Sawyers' Pregnant Mother: Riley Needed Some "Manners"

Case Has Had False Leads and Alarms

Additional Charges, Additional Questions

Mother's Grim Tale of Abuse and Death

Madeline McCann:"Killed by a Pedophile"

Mother Beat, Tortured Toddler

22 Other Little Girls to be Investigated

Baby Grace, Riley Sawyers: Our Deepest Sympathy

Baby Grace, Riley Sawyers: Couple Arrested

Riley Sawyers: Where is She? What's Happened to Her?

Baby Grace and the Little Lost Girl, Riley Sawyers

Grandmother Believes Baby Grace is Granddaughter

Baby Grace and Riley Sawyers Possible Match

Baby Grace: FBI Reward Comparison

Police Follow Tip to Dead End; Missing Girl

FBI Now to Announce $20,000 Reward

FBI Offers $20,000 Reward But No Press Release; The Madeline McCann Connection

VIDEO Who Is Baby Grace: A Video Timeline

Baby Grace: A Timeline - "She Could Be From Any Place in the World"

VIDEO Hundreds of Tips Flood Police

Baby Grace, Madeline McCann and the Little Lost Girls

Three Possible Matches Found

Baby Grace Not Only Missing Little Girl

Is Baby Grace Madeline McCann?

The Heartbreaking Story of Baby Grace


MADELINE McCANN

Case Has Had False Leads and Alarms

Madeline McCann:"Killed by a Pedophile"

by Little Baby Ginn & Mondoreb

Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page

Dog the Bounty Hunter: Two Bounty Hunter Stories, "What Would Dog Do?"

Two bounty-hunting stories for Dog fans.

One, about what Dog did; the other, about what Dog might do.

Back in June, the 20th to be exact, of 2003, the headline were about Duane "Dog" Chapman. But they were headlines of a different sort. The headlines of an American who had been jailed for doing a "good deed" in most people's eyes.

Dog became a household word in the Andrew Luster case. For those whose memories are fuzzy, here's what was written back then.

Anthony Harwood's Heir's Hunter Arrested in the Mirror.

HE is a father of 12, a devout Christian - and America's most famous bounty hunter.

But now Duane "Dog" Chapman and two of his sons are languishing in a Mexican jail while his long-suffering wife Beth tries to raise bail money.

The man who has caught 6,000 fugitives was arrested as he added convicted rapist Andrew Luster, heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune, to his list.

FBI agents are arranging extradition for Luster. But the Chapmans could face charges - Mexican law says bounty hunting is kidnapping.


At home in Honolulu, Beth told the Mirror: "I think it's disgraceful for what he did, the deed he did for the US government.

"The Feds are just going to let him rot. Duane talked to them every day during the hunt. Now they say they can't have anything to do with him."

Chapman, a bounty hunter since 1979, is so famous in America that he organises his own speaking tours.

He is known for "Dogisms" such as: "Born on a mountain, raised in a cave. Arresting fugitives is all I crave." Or: "Six men carry you or 12 men can judge you, you decide.

What would Dog do?
Fast forward to November of 2007. Dog the Bounty Hunter is laying low, his show canceled, his fans signing petitions, mailing pineapples to the A&E Network and rallying to get his "Bounty Hunter" TV show back into the line-up.

Just because Dog is temporarily down, doesn't mean that other bounty hunters are not working. And some of them are working for evil ends.

The following story caught our eye for several reasons. Since the "Enquirer tapes" story made headlines, we've heard a lot of comments about "Dog fans": who they are, what they do with their time when they're not watching "Bounty Hunter" or their level of education.

Those comments are generalizations and they are, in many cases, unsympathetic characterizations of Bounty Hunter fans.

This got us thinking: what would they think of the actions of the bounty hunters in this second story. This is about a group of bounty hunters who are not after criminals. Their prey is a young girl whose only crime is that she is running from being raped, beaten and/or other violence.

The story is about the girl running from those bounty hunters. It happened in England. It happens in the United States, but the stories usually get reported in the back of newspapers and don't receive much attention in the popular media.

The story begins: "She has been kidnapped, tortured, shot at, beaten and, at 16, forced into marriage with a stranger twice her age. And for the past five years Sara Ali has been tracked across Britain by an army of bounty hunters... bounty hunters paid for by her own family." --about Sara Ali in The Mirror's "Woman's 'honour crime' hell by Lucy Thornton.

Settle back--the story takes about 10 minutes to read--but is worth the time. Read the rest of this story and ask yourself: What would Dog do?

Now 22, divorced and living near Newcastle with the father of her two-year-old child, Sara is a victim of so-called "honour crime", a never-ending nightmare that began when she was just 11 years old.

"We lived in a really big nine-bedroom Victorian house and it was always mad busy. My dad had two wives, so there were 11 of us.

My mum had married him in Pakistan after he claimed his wife back in the UK was dying. England was this fantasy, a picture-perfect country with money, so her father agreed to the match.

I had a good childhood, I was popular at school and was pretty much allowed to do what I wanted. But it all started to change when I was 11 years old and taken to Pakistan where men kept asking my parents if they could marry me ... Mum and Dad were under a lot of cultural pressure.

I just thought it was all pretend and even when one of my sisters overheard my parents discussing my engagement I just thought this was the sort of thing that happened to big girls, not to me.

Then, when I turned 14 and was back in the UK, there was a phone call from Pakistan asking when I was going over there to be married.

All hell broke loose when I said I wouldn't go. And it was then that the mental and physical torture began.

My father would drop to the floor, clutching his chest saying I was giving him a heart attack. My brothers and sisters told me they would kill themselves because of the shame I was bringing to the family.

I got a really bad beating from my dad. I locked myself in my bedroom but he kicked the door off its hinges and screamed at me, 'I'm going to burn you alive.'

I remember being so scared I lay shivering from fear in my room. In the night I crept downstairs and ran to the local police station.

I was put into foster care but eventually my family got in touch and I ended going back to them because I was just so scared they would kill me if I disobeyed them.

But when I got home, things just got worse. They called me "dirt" and an "outcast". I had to cook my own food in different pots and pans from the rest of the family.

A little while later, when I was 15, they tricked me into travelling to Pakistan by getting my grandma to phone to tell me she was really ill and wanted to see everyone before she died. I was so naive.

We all flew over, but when we arrived they drove straight past my grandma's house. They told me I was being taken to a remote village to be married. I had no passport, no money - and no hope. I was just a child.

The wedding day was held on my 16th birthday to a man who was 40 and looked like my dad with big bushy hair, a big moustache and a pockmarked face.

I begged him to help me, saying I did not want to marry him but he told me: "Why would I say no to a walking visa?"

I knew it was hopeless, but I even told the priest during the ceremony I did not want to marry this old man, but he just carried on.

On the wedding night I had to go to my "husband's" house where he tried to rape me. I was 16, and had never even kissed a boy before. I'd only ever held hands.

He was an animal. He held my arms and pinned me down. He started licking me and bit me like a dog. I kicked and screamed the place down which probably saved me, but still I felt like I wanted to pour bleach all over my body I felt so dirty.

In the end he pulled my trousers down and screamed in my face: "I'm not going to keep you as a wife. I'm going to use you and abuse you because you're just a slag!"

He beat me violently and tried to rape me again but I made so much noise that his family stopped him in case someone outside the house heard. After that I kept a knife hidden under my pillow.

The next month I flew back to England with my family while he waited for his visa to join us. I went back to college for a bit, but I was messed up and started drinking. I tried to kill myself several times and even threw myself into the canal but I was always dragged back home, without any help or sympathy.

Six months after the marriage I was told my husband was coming to England to live with us and I realised I had to escape. That's when I ran away to Wales, and over time met and fell in love with a white boy.

I thought at last that I was safe and that they would never find me. But I was wrong ...

One day about 80 people turned up outside my flat - they were everywhere - blocking the road. Friends, relatives, friends of friends, neighbours of friends of friends.

When I opened the door I was slapped in the face and dragged back to a car by my hair and driven to my parents' house.

When they got me home, my parents told me I had to sleep with my vile husband but I refused. I begged my father to kill me rather than put me through this daily hell. In total I think I ran away about half a dozen times, but they always found me - even in women's refuges.

They paid these strangers to find me, bounty hunters, giving them my picture, my national insurance number and they showed it round, asking for me.

Eventually, I plotted with my boyfriend to run away, but it went wrong as we were spotted by a relative. We were followed by 15 cars and my brother pulled in front, forcing us to emergency stop. He got his arm through the window, flicked the lock and grabbed me by the hair, pulling me onto the road.

The police heard about it and told my family to take me to the police station. Dozens of my relatives waited outside, but the police helped me escape to a refuge.

But again they tracked me down and threatened to kill my sister if I didn't go with them.

They forced me to go Pakistan and kept me with my so-called husband's family in terror for nine months, telling me I was there to make babies.

I had two guards outside my door and was beaten regularly and one time I was kept in hospital with internal bleeding when his brother beat me with a chair.

They would say: "It's not England. If we bury you now, nobody will come looking. They have no authority over here."

I was even shot at because they said I had disrespected their brother, but it missed and went over my shoulder, I'm still deaf in one ear.

I eventually managed to slip out and phone a youth worker in the UK. It was an answer machine and I left a message: "Please get me out of here. They are going to kill me. If you don't hear from me in the next few weeks, assume that I'm dead!"

Afterwards my husband's family found out I had used a phone and threw me into a river, breaking my arm. But the youth worker contacted immigration who arranged for a judge to have me sent back to the UK.

I never went back to my parents and now I have a beautiful family of my own. I was in heaven until a few months ago when, out of the blue and after changing my name by deed poll I received a letter from that man, a petition for a divorce.

I was terrified, he'd simply found me by paying £14.99 to a tracker agency. But if I must, I will simply move again ... people who lose hope, lose everything.'

Think this is a rare case? Ask yourself that same question after reading the following statistics.

Around 5,000 women a year - 13 a day - die worldwide in "honour" crimes, according to the United Nations.

In Britain figures show 13 people die every year in honour killings, but police and support groups believe it is many more.

The Metropolitan Police are investigating 200 deaths they believe are linked to honour killings.

In a BBC poll of 500 young British Asians last year, a shocking 10 per cent believed honour killings were justified.

Around 250 forced marriages are reported to the Home Office Forced Marriage Unit every year, a third of which are children as young as 12 years old.

The suicide rate of Asian women aged 16 to 24 is three times the national average.

Two stories: one short, the other, longer. Would Duane "Dog" Chapman, for all of the things he's been called over the past 4 weeks, have taken the case to find this girl? Undoubtedly, he would have found her by now. He and his crew would have taken her back to the ones who are looking for her--her family.

What would Dog do?

by Mondoreb

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