Slouching toward Bethlehem

There comes a time in history, where the establishment's actions seem to be quite insane. It is a continuing of the actions of the past, despite the obvious fact they aren't working. This recognition is met not with change, but a doubling up on the same actions hoping for different results. Welcome to the Fed's funhouse.

JSantana_9-29-10_State-seeks-delay-hidden-document-surfaces

The state Attorney General’s Office has asked the 3rd District Court of Appeals to give it 30 more days to answer the writs of mandate filed by Yuba-Sutter attorneys Jesse Santana and David Vasquez.

Meanwhile, a controversial document long missing and conspicuous for its absence from the public file in People v. Santana, Vasquez, CRF08825 has finally surfaced.

The document provides the first tangible evidence supporting suspicions that a cabal of local prosecutors conspired to lodge dubious criminal charges against Santana in order to scuttle his appointment to the Sutter County bench and snag the post for one of their own.

Names are mentioned.

The delay request was signed by Deputy Attorney General David A. Lowe and submitted Sept. 23. It is expected to be granted.

Lowe said, “This is our first – and only contemplated – request for an extension of time” in 3DCA case #C0660008, Santana v. Yuba County Superior Court & People.

The delay was needed, he said, because he still lacked one prominently cited “exhibit/transcript” and a few other key documents. Lowe added:

From a personal standpoint, I have family obligations Sept. 25 & 26 that will prevent further work on the instant opposition. As this court is likely aware as a result of the petitioner’s filing, the record in this case is significant in size and the parties have filed numerous exhibits and documents in support of their motions and oppositions….While I am familiar with most of these exhibits, given my time limitations and the absence of one exhibit, I will not have an adequate opposition completed in time for a timely filing.

In addition to this opposition, “the people also intend to file a petition for writ of mandate challenging the Aug. 27th, order, and with it, intend to ask this Court to reinstate counts II and III of the amended indictment which the superior court dismissed. The People will also be asking this Court to stay superior court proceedings pending resolution of the petition.”

In other words, when the parties meet again Yuba County Superior Court the state is likely to ask for – and get – an indefinite postponement, because :

“The issues between the petitioners’[Santana and Vasquez] petitions and the People’s [the AG] petition are inextricably intertwined as are the facts. Responding to petitioners’ arguments will at the very least necessarily implicate discussion of the lower court’s reasoning.”

Also conspicuous for its absence in Lowe’s request is any mention of related events that “necessarily implicate” the two county district attorneys’ offices and two prosecutors recently appointed to Yuba-Sutter benches.

The document that implicates these public figures recently came to light and a full complete copy was obtained by Notable Trials.

The incriminating document is from a diary kept by Joseph Griesa, the person whose two sessions of testifying to a Yuba County grand jury provided the springboard Yuba County District Attorney Pat McGrath used to indict Santana and Vasquez on felony bribery and ethical charges.

Here is the Jan. 18, 20008 entry in Griesa’s diary:

I received a call from a friend of mine who told me that Attorney Santana’s bid for Sutter County Superior Court was in jeopardy due to my case and the proposed civil compromise, and that it might have been a contributing factor for his non-continued representation of Ms. AXXX [a minor-aged person known elsewhere in court documents as “SA”] . He also said that attorney Jesse Santana and Attorney Mike were related by marriage and their offices related by marriage and their offices were practically next door to each other. He also told me of a luncheon’ [sic] he had been to at a local restaurant where members of both the Sutter and Yuba County DA’s offices were at. He said that one of the judges for Yuba County was there as well, along with the attorney that was running against Attorney Jesse Santana, who also works in the DA’s Office.

One of the topics at the table was the upcoming appointment of the new Superior Court Judge position for Sutter County.

A week later another friend of mine, who I spoke to about the circumstances of my case called me to tell me he had an investigator from the California Judicial Review Board call him and ask him questions regarding my case and what role Attorney Santana had had in my case. He believed the Yuba County DA’s office was very interested in my case but not for the obvious reasons, It was his belief that the appointment of Attorney Jesse Santana for Sutter County Superior Court Judge was highly contested by both the Yuba and Sutter County DA offices and that they wanted one of their own in that position. Neither Yuba nor Sutter County have a judge of anything other than white Caucasian, and because of Jessie’s [sic] Hispanic ethnicity he could get the appointment, The judicial review would be on-going until at least June of 2007 before a decision would be reached by the Governor’s Office, according to my friend. There are currently at least three female superior court judges in Yuba and Sutter County and the current DA’s choice is one of their own and she is a white female. According to my friend it is for that reason that the Yuba County DA’s office will strike before the appointment is announced. [Emphasis added} In addition, according to my friend, attorney David Vasquez has been reaping the benefits of having both of his former law office partners now on the bench for both Yuba and Sutter County. One of the judges is the presiding superior court judge for Yuba County. [Ed. Note: That would be the recently retired Judge James Curry.] It was his opinion that Attorney Vasquez is often the recipient of getting the top felony court cases that are appointed by the residing judge. IN addition, Attorney Vasquez had won several high profile criminal cases against DA McGrath to include a recent murder case in which David’s client went completely free despite several felony charges, It is for these reasons that my attorney friend is concerned about my case, the potential political fallout, and collateral damage it could do to me and my family. As he puts it, “Joe you are the appetizer of the dinner that McGrath is cooking.”

In a recent face-to-face jailhouse interview, Griesa revealed the name of the restaurant where the fateful luncheon meeting took place, the approximate date of the meeting, and, most importantly, the names of the key people there.

The crucial get-together was held at the Szechuan restaurant in Marysville. It took place in mid-December, 2007. Attendees a included Yuba County DA Patrick McGrath; Yuba County Superior Court Judge Julia Scrogin (who had been a prosecutor in the Sutter County DA’s Office); and Sutter County Deputy District Attorney Susan Green (who was then competing for the Sutter County judgeship and was appointed to that position shortly after Santana was forced out due to the Yuba County indictment).

Absent from that meeting were Sutter County DA Carl Adams and Assistant Sutter County Frederick Schroeder, both of whom were strong backers Green’s appointment to the Sutter County bench slot.

The “friend” who provided the eyewitness information on the Szechuan meeting is a well-known local attorney with unimpeachable insider information on the politics of Yuba-Sutter judgeships and appointments thereto and a reason to know these facts.

Notable Trials is currently withholding that person’s name to protect that person and to protect our on-going investigation into possible criminal wrong-doing by top current and past officials in the two county DA’s offices and two sitting judges in the two counties.

Notable Trials will also be taking a closer look at how gubernatorial appointments are being finagled in these two counties and into the backgrounds and political backers of the candidates for the open appointment to replace the recently retired Judge Curry in Yuba County.

According to Mark G. Steidlmayer, a Sutter County attorney who is keeping a close eye on the judicial appointments, at least five local attorneys have so far thrown their names in for the Yuba bench appointment.

They have been identified because they are included in query letter sent out by the California Judicial Nominees Commission – known in the trade as “the Jenny Commission – which investigates presents to the governor its list of recommended potential candidates for judgeships.

The current list of judgeship hopefuls include:

-- Steve Lamon: an attorney now in private practice in Sacramento County, but was formerly in Sutter County and still advertises heavily in the Appeal Democrat.
-- Steve Berrier: a private practice attorney with the Rich Fuidge firm in Marysville
-- Chris Carlos: currently a prosecutor with the Sutter County DA’s Office County
-- Benjamin Wirtschafter: Yuba County Public Defender
-- Brenda Harris> an attorney in private practice in Sutter County

“Questionnaires are sent to the attorneys, but responses are also taken “from anyone. Citizens included. If not asked I am sure citizen comments are nonetheless welcome,” Steidlmayer said.

The state Constitution calls for judges to be elected, but, under the law, if a bench vacancy should occur the governor may appoint a replacement. The appointee must then run for election in an open race at the next county election following the expired term

Well, that’s the law anyway. However, many years ago the State Bar of California and the Governor’s Office together connived to elbow out citizen participation.

The state constitution allowed the governor to appoint judges if and when judgeships became vacant through death or retirement.

The scam was developed in which a sitting judge would retire early – say, six or seven months before his or her six-year term expired – thus handing the governor a plum appointment to make.

Once appointed by the governor, the new judge got to run in the next election as an incumbent, a posh position that drastically reduced any possible rival candidates.

Not satisfied with that scam, the next step the SBA, the governor’s political operatives and interested parties such as so-called “watchdog groups” backed a successful ballot initiative that allowed county clerks to remove the names of sitting judges from the ballot if they were not opposed. No opposition, no need to be on the ballot, right.

It only took a few election cycles for the public to forget that judges were supposed to be elected. As a result, at least in the mistaken public mind, judges are appointed in California, not elected.

“That so many are seeking the post is an economic indicator as to small town law practice,” Steidlmayer notes, adding [It is] hard to match (with a conscience) Judge's pay and benefits.”

Steidlmayer, who freely admits to being a Santana supporter, concludes, “The sad irony is that Santana is shut out from even applying although he is most qualified. "Fragged" by the system is much too kind” a description of what was done to Santana.

Notable Trials has a detailed follow-up report coming soon on a formal request Steidlmayer has filed with the US Attorney in Sacramento calling for a full-blown investigation by an unprejudiced agency into possible misuse of official powers in the indictment of Santana and Vasquez and the appointments of local judges.

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Species extinction situation worst than global warming

The giant carnivorous plant, Nepenthes attenboroughii, is among those facing extinction.

One in five of the world's plant species – the basis of all life on earth – are at risk of extinction, according to a landmark study published today.

At first glance, the 20% figure looks far better than the previous official estimate of almost three-quarters, but the announcement is being greeted with deep concern.

The previous estimate that 70% of plants were either critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable was based on what scientists universally acknowledged were studies heavily biased towards species already thought to be under threat.

Today the first ever comprehensive assessment of plants, from giant tropical rainforests to the rarest of delicate orchids, concludes the real figure is at least 22%. It could well be higher because hundreds of species being discovered by scientists each year are likely to be in the "at risk" category.

"We think this is a conservative estimate," said Eimear Nic Lughadha, one of the scientists at Kew Gardens in west London responsible for the project.

The plant study is also considered critical to understanding the level of threat to all the natural world's biodiversity, said Craig Hilton-Taylor of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which runs the world's offical "red list" of threatened species. "Plants are the basis of life, and unless we know what's happening to plants it has many implications," said Hilton-Taylor.

Flowering plants not doing well, either

More than one-in-four of all flowering plants are under threat of extinction according to the latest report to confirm the ongoing destruction of much of the natural world by human activity.

As a result, many of nature's most colourful specimens could be lost to the world before scientists even discover them, claims the research, published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The results reflect similar global studies of other species groups by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which estimates that one-in-five of all mammals, nearly one-in-three amphibians and one-in-eight birds are vulnerable to being wiped out completely. Later this year the results of a huge global analysis of all the world's estimated up to 400,000 plants by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is due to be published by the IUCN as part of its ongoing mission to assess the state of all life on Earth.

"[This year] marks the International Year of Biodiversity," said Stuart Pimm of Duke University in North Carolina, USA, one of the authors of the report. "The focus of this celebration has often been on the species we know of, along with discussions on the unprecedented challenge of conserving this biodiversity in the face of threats such as habitat loss. However, by asking just how many species we will lose before they are even discovered, our study has revealed a figure that is truly alarming."

What an FBI fishing expedition is like

Options? Disperse tools. Duplicate text records and working materials. Stash them off-site, with a trusted colleague. That way, if govt agents break in and confiscate you have an alternative operating base to fire up and continue.

Today one must assume surveillance and act accordingly.

Gelertner: ‘Science sits at the feet of religion’

Outside the tiny circle of orthodox practitioners, almost no one grasps the significance and meaning of Judaism’s complex religious law. In a much broader sense, the ceremonial acts of the whole Judeo-Christian world are increasingly a mystery to modern man. All such religious ritual has been dismissed as morally irrelevant superstition. But science, specifically thermodynamics, helps to write a commentary on religion. In this area, as in so many others, science sits at the feet of religion.

[…]The question has always been acute in Judaism, where the rabbis insist repeatedly that commandments must be done “for their own sakes!”, “out of love,” never “in expectation of a reward.” And Judaism has always been vague on the topic of life after death. The Christian tradition centers far more on the soul’s career after the body dies, on heaven and hell and the last things. But some devout Christians are uneasy with this focus. Some branches of Christian thought are likely to become more “Jewish” (in focusing ultimately on living rather than dying) in the future. But why bother with religious ritual, if not for the practical gain? Why should 21st-century man spend time and energy on this sort of thing?

Religion as a virus rejected

It took a seminar of scholars for her to see the light. At least, that's what she claims.


Obama in deep political trouble

He’s now only two or three points ahead of four potential GOP opponents, or “gopponents.”

Virtual unknowns are not that far behind him these two years out from 2012. That’s two years of lame-ducking his way through watching legislation that harms the poor and middle class to the benefit of the upscale and the rich.

And you might as well write off global ecology and most of the human race.

Home says we have just 10 years left to turn things around. I say, mankind's death certificate will effectively be signed and filed away before Obama leaves office in two years, if we make it that far.

Ideas to shrink cities

A few of these ideas are actually starting to be tried. In Detroit, a city that now has more than 40 square miles of vacant land, Mayor Dave Bing has committed himself to finding a way to move more of the city’s residents into its remaining vibrant neighborhoods and figuring out something else to do with what remains. A growing number of cities and counties are creating “land banks” to enable them to clear the administrative hurdles that previously prevented them from taking control of blighted blocks of abandoned homes.

The idea remains controversial. [Some]… argue that planned shrinkage is simply an excuse to stop helping the people in the worst-hit neighborhoods, and will only compound the pain that industrial decline and the housing collapse have had on the lives of poor and working-class residents.

But to the proponents of the idea, it’s a recognition of reality, and, more than that, an opportunity to free struggling cities from a paralyzing preoccupation with past glories. At its most ambitious, smart shrinking offers an opportunity to rethink what makes a city a city: Some planners envision a landscape that isn’t recognizably urban, suburban, or rural, but some combination of the three, with multistory apartment buildings next to working farms, and public transit lines extending through neighborhoods where most households have ample space to park their cars.

“This is an area where five years ago basically nobody except a couple of academics and oddball planners were talking about it, and now it’s pretty widely accepted. You’ve got just a lot of land and a lot of buildings for which there is no quote redevelopment potential,” says Alan Mallach, an urban planning expert at the Brookings Institution. “Part of what you have to do is think about ways to use land that help improve the quality of life but don’t involve actual building.” […]

Other organizations are looking to turn vacant lots to more straightforwardly productive uses. Urban farms, for example, are spreading in several cities. These are not just community gardens, but larger-scale operations meant to be viable commercial enterprises. One of the most successful is the Ohio City Farm, a 6-acre plot behind a large housing development across the Cuyahoga River from downtown Cleveland. The farm, still in its first growing season, produces over 100 varieties of heirloom fruits and vegetables, and is worked by a few young entrepreneur farmers, residents of the housing development, and, thanks to a local nonprofit, refugees who have resettled in the area.

The fish are hard to look at

One whitefish has a golfball-sized tumour bulging from its side. Another is simply missing part of its spine, its tail growing from a stumpy rear end.

One has no snout. Another is coloured a lurid red instead of a healthy cream. Others are covered with lesions and still others are bent and crooked from deformed vertebrae.

All were taken from Lake Athabasca, downstream from the oilsands in northern Alberta, and were on display Thursday. All are reasons, say a group of scientists and aboriginals, for the federal government to conduct an independent study on what’s happening to the Athabasca River and its watershed after decades of industry expansion.

“A lot of people are afraid to eat fish from the lake,” said Robert Grandjambe of Fort Chipewyan, which is also downstream of the oilsands. “It’s time we had a proper monitoring study done.”

Prominent scientists, two area doctors, five past and present First Nations leaders, a local member of the legislature, the mayor of the Wood Buffalo municipality that includes Fort McMurray, and other area residents all support a letter requesting such a study that was sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday.

The fish aren’t part of any formal scientific survey. But local anglers say the number of such deformed and disturbing catches is growing.

Introspection: It occurs in the prefrontal cortex

Scientists have identified the part of the brain that appears to control introspection – the ability to think about what you are thinking.

The discovery could lead to an understanding of one of the key ingredients of human consciousness and could help to treat certain brain injuries where people lose their ability to reflect upon their own thoughts and actions.

Researchers found that people who were more introspective tended to have larger volumes of nerve tissue in an area of the prefrontal cortex, directly behind the eyes.

American paranoia is secretly behind everything

Whatever their boogeymen (and in the case of anti-Communist fanatics during the Cold War -- paranoia's golden age -- the fear was grounded in fact), these groups shared the same baroque and fantastical imagination. This is what Hofstadter meant when he referred to a persistent "style." Its elements are: "the central image" of "a vast and sinister conspiracy, a gigantic and yet subtle machinery of influence set in motion to undermine and destroy a way of life"; an "apocalyptic" mentality, that "traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human value"; and an insistence on seeing all political differences as "a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil."

With the passing of the Soviet Union, the paranoid style lost a bad guy made in heaven, and the years since have seen a restless casting about for a suitable replacement. Hofstadter essentially argued that, while political paranoids claim to be driven to their crusades by the nefarious misdeeds of their designated fiends, really it's the other way around; the craziness comes first and then seeks an appropriate object. It looks even crazier when it can't quite settle on a sufficiently dastardly evildoer. For example, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" reads like a playbook for the career of Glenn Beck, right down to the paranoid's "quality of pedantry" and "heroic strivings for 'evidence,'" embodied in Beck's chalkboard and piles of books. But Beck lacks an archenemy commensurate with his stratospheric ambitions, which makes him appear even more absurd to outsiders.

Decoupling from reality

As Election Day 2010 approaches – as the United States wallows in the swamps of war, recession and environmental degradation – the consequences of the nation’s three-decade-old decoupling from reality are becoming painfully obvious.

Yet, despite the danger, the nation can’t seem to move in a positive direction, as if the suctioning effect of endless spin, half-truths and lies holds the populace in place, a force that grows ever more powerful like quicksand sucking the country deeper into the muck – to waist deep, then neck deep.

Trapped in the mud, millions of Americans are complaining about their loss of economic status, their sense of powerlessness, their nation’s decline. But instead of examining how the country stumbled into this morass, many still choose not to face reality.

Instead of seeking paths to the firmer ground of a reality-based world, people from different parts of the political spectrum have decided to embrace unreality even more, either cynically as a way to delegitimize a political opponent or because they’ve simply become addicted to the crazy.

Hitler was Catholic? The nuns never mentioned it…

Uh, wait a minute. Hitler and the Nazis most assuredly were not atheists. Indeed, Hitler was baptized a Catholic and never renounced the faith, though he didn’t practice it. Neither did the Vatican excommunicate him or pronounce anathema on his regime.

Hitler did crack down on the church’s role in politics, banished the crucifix from public schools and shut down monasteries whenever reports of pedophilia surfaced.

He also launched the German Christian protestant movement, where folks were called on to worship an Aryan Christ. Atheists were banned from the SS, which required its members to be Gottglaubig, literally “God-believing.”