Can we all learn to be fashionably impoverished.

It is documented. The Poor of Great Britain are disregarded and forgotten. 

22 March 2015
By Sarah Cassidy

Children from poor (click here) backgrounds are still being written off as low achievers by their teachers because of the “soft bigotry of low expectations”, the Education Secretary Nicky Morgan warned yesterday.

More needed to be done to ensure that no child was held back by their circumstances, Ms Morgan told the annual conference of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) in London.
Low educational performance in some coastal areas and small towns in England was “a scandal”, she added, citing the bigotry phrase first coined by the former US President George W Bush.
Almost three quarters of teenagers in Trafford, in Greater Manchester, achieved five good GCSE passes including English and maths, but “just a 30-minute drive away” in Knowsley “the number is less than half of that at 35 per cent”, she said...

It's Sunday Night

 "Hate" by Plain White T's (click here)

Love love love love love love
You were everything I wanted
You were everything a girl could be
Then you left me brokenhearted
Now you don't mean a thing to me
All I wanted was your
Love love love love love love
Hate is a strong word
But I really, really, really don't like you
Now that it's over
I don't even know what I liked about you
Brought you around and you just brought me down
Hate is a strong word
But I really, really, really don't like you
I really don't like you
Thought that everything was perfect (perfect)
Isn't that how it's supposed to be?
Thought you thought that I was worth it
Now I think a little differently
All I wanted was your
Love love love love love love
Hate is a strong word
But I really, really, really don't like you (I really don't like you)
Now that it's over
I don't even know what I liked about you (liked about you)
Brought you around and you just brought me down
Hate is a strong word
But I really, really, really don't like you
Now that it's over you can't hurt me
Now that it's over you can't bring me down


Oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh
All I wanted was your
Love love love love love love
(Hate) Hate is a strong word
But I really, really, really don't like you (I really don't like you)
Now that it's over
I don't even know what I liked about you (liked about you)
Brought you around and you just brought me down
(Hate) Hate is a strong word
But I really, really, really don't like you
(Oh oh oh oh oh oh)
I really don't like you
(Oh oh oh oh oh oh)
I really don't like you
(Oh oh oh oh oh oh)
I really don't like you
(Oh oh oh oh oh oh)

Israel will have to hold them close.

March 22, 2015
By Michael Winter

Seven children (click here) from an Orthodox Jewish family who died early Saturday when fire swept through their Brooklyn home are to be buried in Jerusalem, where the family had lived before emigrating to New York.
Funeral services for the four boys and three girls of the Sassoon family, ages 5 to 16, are to be held Sunday afternoon at a Brooklyn chapel that serves their religious community.
The bodies will then be flown to Israel and buried in Jerusalem at 2 p.m. Monday, the Israeli network Arutz Sheva reported. The family had lived there for many years before moving to the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn two years ago. A friend said the family had planned to return to Israel to live....

My sincerest sympathies to the family of the children loss to fire.

GPS does it again.

The idiot that stated, "There must be personal animosity against Bebe Netanyahu by the President.," needs to enjoy his retirement. That type of inflammatory talk is not only disrespectful of the President but demeans the roll of the USA in the world. 

President Obama is incapable of personal animosity. He came out as soon as he could after the Prime Minister spoke to state he hadn't yet heard the speech because he was meeting with another head of state, but, he would do so. There is absolutely no personal animosity against the Prime Minister by the President. 

Then John McCain stated, ‘The president has his priorities so screwed up that it’s unbelievable,’ senator says (click here)

Mr. Senator, it isn't the President having a temper tantrum, but, you in stating same.

Under the Obama Administration, Israel has never known such cooperation.

Given that U.S. military aid to Israel was $2.775 billion in 2010, $3 billion in 2011, $3.07 billion in 2012 (and $3.15 billion per year from 2013-2018) while Israel's defense budget is around $15 billion, it made us wonder how much Israeli taxpayers contribute and where the other $12 billion non-U.S. aid comes from.Sep 20, 2012

I will not read an article in "Playboy" on the interview with Cheney.

There is only one reason why Cheney continues to interrupt the political dialogue in the USA. 

Only one.

Cheney continues to mitigate the human rights violations of the administration he participated. If he can continue to defend himself in the public realm, he postpones the reality of facing a global authority for the crimes he committed.

"Hands Up, Don't Shoot is an important understanding of what occurred in Ferguson. The African American community was pushing back and that is powerful. Michael Brown, Jr. is a power person.

"Hands Up, Don't Shoot" is important. The DOJ report does not dismiss abuse of African Americans. The abuse is obvious and arguing the African American community is wrong and inflammatory because the report states Darren Wilson was "Not Guilty" proves nothing. The only thing the DOJ report proves is there is no case against Darren Wilson. That is all it proves. Michael Brown, Jr. should be alive today and in college. There is no doubt in that in my mind.

LEGALLY the DOJ did not have a strong case for whatever reason they didn't, but, that does not mean the city of Ferguson was not full of hate of the minorities that was it's major population. Ferguson is a disgrace to this country. 

The legal episode that lead to the death of Michael Brown, Jr. can only be understood within the context of bigotry and racism within the community. There is no removing his death from the fact this city is one of the worst when it comes to civil rights in this country. 

This country is witnessing bias, discrimination, bigotry and racism on an ever widening field of African Americans. It is real. It exists and the travesty of Ferguson cannot and will not be ignored. 

Michael Brown, Jr. was criticized by many as pushing the store keeper around. What lead to that 'strong arm' moment that snowballed into his death was based in the understanding of life that those with power in the police force and city administration hated them. Michael Brown, Jr. at that point was going to have Cigarillos for whatever reason it was important.

On the other side of this was Darren Wilson that treated Michael Brown, Jr., age 18 years old, as an object to control by brutal force and the ability to kill at any cost.

These words and thoughts are in other entries on this blog. My focus was and is to support the empowerment of African Americans, especially to end the killing of young, unarmed black men. This is a horrible reality of this country. It cannot be denied. 

Darren Wilson did not have to shoot Michael Brown, Jr., but, he did and I don't care what anyone says, Michael Brown, Jr. should be alive today. The entire episode escalated out of control because two young black men were JAYWALKING. I don't think so. Realizing the oppressive law enforcement system that was to support the city's treasury through the court is to realize how those in Ferguson simply took life the way they found it. 

Michael Brown, Jr. didn't have a chance. He didn't escalate the circumstances that caused his death, the escalation was automatic.  

The Black Community in Ferguson was living in a fish bowl. They couldn't get away from the predatory law enforcement. No different than Albuquerque, New Mexico where the homeless were never safe. Their lives were on the line because they were homeless. That should be the complete opposite. They were being killed because they were a victim to capitalism at any cost. 

These cities have structural and institutional hatred for human beings that should be alive today. This is government out of control. There are far too many circumstances pointing to the fact the governments in the USA are out of control and oppressive. From the NSA to the death of James Boyd and the clear hatred and fiscal exploitation of those in Michael Brown, Jr.'s hometown is all too clear.

January 13, 2015
By David Fitzpatrick

Albuquerque, New Mexico (CNN)Two Albuquerque, New Mexico, (click here) police officers will face first-degree murder charges in last year's shooting of a homeless man in the hills above the city, a prosecutor announced Monday.

Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez were ordered to appear at a preliminary hearing, the date of which has not yet been set, said District Attorney Kari Brandenburg of New Mexico's Second Judicial Circuit.

Sandy and Perez are accused of killing James Boyd in March. The 38-year-old homeless man spent the night before his shooting in a shelter, but when the shelter closed for the winter, Boyd tried to camp in the hills above the city, officials said.... 

There is a common denominator in all these cases, the USA has applied military style control to it's people and it has end. This was not my country. This is not my country. My country embraces the needy, the oppressed, the grieved to make life better, not worse.

How did we get here? The real impact of a policing system that begins at the top and works down that have supplied military equipment to our cities and towns. The police training that was used to enforce fiscal profiteering in the governments of our cities. Treating young black men as if they are guilty before they are innocent. The obvious nature of out of control power is everywhere.  

As of today, how many lives have been saved by the sheer power of 'the demonstration.' How many people are talking about how bizarre police actions in the USA have become? How many people see the very dangerous policing that exists killing unarmed young black men? I am appalled at the degree this country has looked the other way allowing the continued killing of these people. This is life and death and it is the American street. I don't think so.

Spring Arrived on Friday, March 20, 2015 at 22:45 UTC

March 22, 2015 
0015 gmt
The Weather Channel
Current Temperatures

One full day of Spring and the temperatures are looking different from yesterday, except, for northern tier states.

It is In Iran's best interest to secure an agreement.

There have been three decades of mistrust between Iran and The West. That doesn't go away over night. The Middle East can't possibly think about nuclear war. It is out of the question.

March 21, 2015
By Lesley Wroughton

(Reuters) - Iran's top leader (click here) voiced mistrust on Saturday of U.S. efforts to reach a nuclear deal, even as Washington and its allies spoke of real progress and urged Tehran to take "difficult decisions".
With just 10 days remaining until an end-of-March deadline for a framework agreement, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced U.S. "bullying" in the negotiations and repeated Tehran's denial that it was seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.
After week-long talks with Iran in Switzerland, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew to London to confer with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany on prospects for resolving the dispute, which goes back more than a decade and has threatened at times to unleash a new war in the Middle East.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers said they agreed that "substantial progress" had been made with Iran in key areas, but some important issues remained outstanding....

This agreement will assist in stabilizing the region so the Shia have their homeland secure and the war with Daesh can be conducted to end the violence and hardship so many experience in the Middle East. 

There is every reason to sign an agreement. Every reason.  The United Nations is receptive to any ongoing concerns by Iran of any other country. This agreement does not make mute the importance that Iran can play in stabilizing the Middle East. This agreement is important. I wish the leaders of Iran would find a way to reconcile their worries and place faith where faith belongs.

There is no room for nuclear weapons in the Middle East, it supplies a solution for no one.

The USA Senate states there is such a thing occurring called Climate Change.

The Governor of Florida bought the election of 2014 with his own money. He is currently using the Florida infrastructure to fire employees, very valuable employees, by running them through the "Employee Assistance" option available to managers. The Employee Assistance Program in the case of most institutions are necessary when employees are considered to be unable to deal with their work.

Currently, Florida Employees are using proper scientific words and facts to record their scientific findings on their jobs. Those scientifically correct words include climate, change and possibly other vernaculars scientists recognize. 

By placing pressure on scientists within the Florida government with their employment, Rick Scott is telling them to commit fraud and fraud by absence of valid scientific words and concepts as well.

No Governor or manager has the right to commit fraud and get away with it. Governor Rick Scott is not a god although I am sure his wayward wealth allows him to feel like one. 

Currently, very important and irreplaceable scientists are being threatened with their state jobs because Rick Scott has personal aspirations to ignore the science of climate. Scott is known to have committed fraud in the past in the health care industry. This is somewhat familiar behavior for him. 

The scientists threatened in such a manner can enter into a "Class" and sue the State of Florida for viciousness and abuse of power within the fraud the Governor seeks to substitute for the truth. 

Florida is one of the most effected by the threat of climate change. There is expected significant sea level rise that will directly effect the very lives of citizens of Florida. The fraud Rick Scott is committing threatens lives in Florida. He is negligent in his administration and is violating the public trust at the very least. There needs to be an investigation to realize whether or not people have already suffered because of his thirst for fraudulent behavior in seats of power from his first administration.

The State of Florida has conducted surveys to understand the danger Floridians will face with rising sea level. This is vital work and the employees within Florida have to be secure in their jobs to protect the people and their land.

"Climate Change and Sea Level Rise in Florida" (click here)

The report below is compliments of the "University of Florida."

Climate Change Basics for the Southeast USA (from AgroClimate) (click here)

"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.

-Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

There is a Fifth Assessment and the Florida Professionals need to review it's findings.

How far is Rick Scott going to be allowed to carry his irresponsible behavior toward the people by changing curriculum at the university and enforce fraudulent documentation of the climate change in Florida in order to have his own facts validated by very competent and necessary scientists.

This behavior is not strange for right wing political extremists. I have witnessed first hand how esteemed and internationally recognized scientists can be harassed by a Dean to change their behavior in reporting facts. 

At UNCW we were successful in effecting change with the Dean and Provost otherwise the same bizarre dynamics as noted with Rick Scott would be dictating curriculum today. Rosemary DePaolo not only encouraged harassment in departments to achieve such an agenda, but, looked the other way to facilitate that end. I know it is possible IF the staff, university professors and students don't act as a united front to preserve THE TRUTH.

Governor Scott has an agenda of fraud and no one should look the other way. He didn't dare bring about the fraud during his first term otherwise he would have had to invest far more of his own wealth to achieve a second term. At least we all know now why he paid all those monies to be re-elected. I am concerned for the people of the State of Florida in all aspects of their state government, including those incarcerated. I don't know what he is capable of, only be found out when it is too late.

I remind. It was Florida that lost citizens to ill health because the Medicaid expansion was refused by the Governor. I can't believe there is nothing to be done with these Governors in allowing their citizens death and those families hardship because there was no Medicare expansion. It is unconscionable. Realizing how much Rick Scott loves money and ideology over moral options for the State of Florida and it's citizens, realizing he is capable of intimidating employees with their job; I am more than worried, I am scared there will be more and more problems for the people of Florida.

There is precedent of the President speaking to the people of the Middle East.

Hydraulic Fracturing otherwise known as "Fracking" is a very dangerous technology.

The petroleum industry will tout this is the best technology for the USA, but, at the same time they cannot prove it is a safe technology. It is not only dangerous, but, the land is being destroyed. If there isn't livable land, there is no country.

One of the chemicals, just one of them is hydrochloric acid. What happens when acid is poured into the ground to melt rock? Thousands of feet below the feet people are standing on there are chemicals destroying rock from this technology. 

In Oklahoma and Texas we know FOR A FACT this technology is causing earthquakes. It is not only causing earthquakes, the earthquakes are increasing in the Richter velocity.

Some wells have been closed and the earthquakes haven't stopped. The earthquakes aren't going to stop simply because the well is closed. Those chemicals are still in the rock. They are still melting the rock and won't stop until the chemical processes are completely used up by the melting process. 

Now, that isn't the end of it. The melting of rock has caused a change in the weight distribution of the rock about the drilled shaft. Even after the chemical processes completely play out, the land above the drill shaft and below it has to stop moving around in order for the earthquakes to end. There is no guarantee the earthquakes will stop as the land and rock continue to shift. 

If the land doesn't stop experiencing earthquakes the land will result in a dangerous rock formation called liquefaction. Liquefaction thousands of feet deep.

Liquefaction is a phenomenon in which the strength and stiffness of a soil is reduced by earthquake shaking or other rapid loading. Liquefaction and related phenomena have been responsible for tremendous amounts of damage in historical earthquakes around the world. 

How much weight in land and rock is above the horizontally drilled shaft? Why would a hole drilled in rock, even without the chemicals, be stable? What kind of process in drilling and stabilizing the shaft is going to stop the land and rock from destabilizing? 

Oh, I'm not finished.  

Vertical wells don't have layers upon layers of rock and land above it to collapse the well and it's casings. Vertical drilling only seeks to put a few holes into a vat of oil. It has no forces acting on it to collapse the well. 

And then there is the issue of failed well casings. The petroleum industry states the well casings failures are rare. We know that is not the case and why this technology is dangerous to aquifers. The question is why do the well casings fail?

The well casing fail in this instance because the rock melting chemicals effect the well all the way down. From top to bottom the rock is exposed to the rock melting chemicals. Those chemicals are introduced before the well is established and cement casings are poured. Where are the chemicals when the petroleum industry pours their cement/concrete? 

When the wells are so called stabilized the chemicals in the rock are still present. Why would cement or metal for that matter exposed to chemicals be stable enough to allow the well casings to be intact under extraordinary intense forces of rock and land? 

The entire technology is dangerous and the industry has no interest or desire to provide a technology that is safe. The purpose of the petroleum industry is to drill, not to care about the well being of people or their country's lands. We have witnessed nothing but greed with exploding rail cars, over drilling that has crashed the price of oil and an industry with so much hubris they throw drug parties for US government workers and have no idea whether they will be able to continue the employ of Americans as they flood the market with oil and gas. 

All that before I even discuss The Clean Air and Water Acts.

As previously noted, (click here) chemicals perform many functions in a hydraulic fracturing job.  Although there are dozens to hundreds of chemicals which could be used as additives, there are a limited number which are routinely used in hydraulic fracturing.  The following is a list of the chemicals used most often.  This chart is sorted alphabetically by the Product Function to make it easier for you to compare to the fracturing records.

This is suppose to be a list of the chemicals the industry has to choose from in order to frack land. No standardization of the process, just anything they can find that is on the market. 

There should never be trust placed in the hands of this industry as they completely ignore the public trust and it's ability to cope with their own reality when it hits. 

And the industry has the nerve to challenge a President interested in the well being of the people he serves.

March 20, 2015
By Joby Warrick
 
The Obama administration (click here) imposed tougher restrictions Friday on tens of thousands of fossil-fuel wells on public lands that use fracking technology to extract oil and gas, saying the measures would help safeguard the nation’s water supply.
The regulations represent the administration’s most significant effort to tighten standards for hydraulic fracturing, the controversial practice that pumps liquid into rock seams at high pressure to access pockets of oil and gas that would be difficult to recover using more conventional methods. The measures affect only wells on federally owned lands, or roughly a quarter of the gas and oil operations in the country.
But industry groups immediately attacked the rules as needlessly burdensome and a threat to the country’s surging oil and gas industry. Some environmental groups also complained, saying the regulations were not strict enough....

Thank you, Ms. Blackburn.

This is a picture of Ms. Blackburn. Her right hand forefinger gets a workout continually. She is dangerous to the American people. These people are seeking to end the federal government to the detriment of the country and it's people. They don't care, they want to end the federal government of the USA with the exception of their war department.

The 2016 Budget Plan includes raiding Social Security Trust Fund.

Marsha Blackburn and a few others are holding up Immigration Reform because they want to raid the Social Security fund, FIRST. They want to remove the monies in the Social Security Fund placed there by the Undocumented. It is not stated what will happen with these funds, but, it is fully evident the House Republicans have linked Social Security with Immigration Reform in order to defeat both. 

Blackburn complains there are phones not answered at the US Immigration Offices and she is unable to resolve problems for her immigrating Kurds. She refuses to understand this is one of the problems that occurs with negligence of immigration reform. 

The monies in SSI were put there lawfully and taking the Undocumented as hostages to insure the GOP has enough time to destroy SSI is not reasonable, nor humanitarian. 

The Blackburn Cabal on the Budget Committee wants the entire world to respect the word of law and practice economics as the USA practices it. These folks are crazy and don't give one damn about the Americans in this country and only interested in their ideological goals. To think Marsha Blackburn EVEN WENT THERE to a fund Americans rely on in their older years is to speak to the lack of morality of this Republican Congress. 

Any bill, even if attached to any budget bill will be vetoed and rightfully so.

Nigerian soldiers needed in freed town.

Chadian soldiers in Damasak on Wednesday, only days after the town was liberated from Boko Haram militants. Credit Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

March 30, 2015

...Rather than a display of important regional cooperation (click here)  in the battle against Boko Haram, the visit instead pointed out some of the confusion and resentment that are creating tension among neighbors. The soldiers from Chad and Niger had succeeded here, but there was not a single Nigerian soldier to be found. The force members were bewildered to find themselves as foreign liberators without any help from the Nigerians.

Even as the Nigerian government, with a national election looming, insists that its forces have chased Boko Haram fighters out of much of their northern territory, the deserted streets and all-foreign force here paint a different picture. Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians still cannot return home to towns that have been, nominally at least, freed from Boko Haram.

But the foreign soldiers here said they do not want to occupy somebody else’s country, and worry that the Islamist fighters will simply return if they leave and the Nigerians have not arrived to take over....

The legislature cannot legislation themselves Executive Powers no matter how much "Joe the Plumber" threatens a veto at the ballot box.

Stop wasting the country's money. 

Today it is 132 days Attorney General Nominee is waiting for a vote in the Senate.

Just because Congress passes a bill for political purposes doesn't mean it is constitutional. Does Congress realize they need the President to sign it to bring it into law?

March 20, 2015
By Patricia Zengerie

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats and Republicans (click here) agreed on Thursday to delay until April 14 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's vote on legislation that would force President Barack Obama to submit any nuclear agreement with Iran for Congress' approval.

The announcement, which came after an intense lobbying push by Obama and administration officials, gives international negotiators more breathing room as they attempt to meet a late-March deadline for a framework agreement....

From previous article:

The Obama administration's proposed fiscal year 2016 budget includes the increase in the IMF financial commitment. 

Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Brothers doesn't work for the government!

The US Congress are not caring out their responsibilities.

March 18, 2015

...“Critically, (click here) we are seeking Congressional approval of the IMF quota and governance reforms,” Lew told a hearing of the House of Representatives financial services committee, according to the prepared text. “Our international credibility and influence are being threatened.”...

Even where the Congress is suppose to make decision, they don't do it. The USA is the only country in the IMF that hasn't approved reforms. The lack of action at the IMF is causing other countries to wonder if the USA is able to act on anything anymore.

...“Our continued failure to approve the IMF quota and governance reforms is causing other countries, including some of our allies, to question our commitment to the IMF and other multilateral institutions that we worked to create and that advance important US and global economic and security interests.”

Lew noted that the reform delay was pushing emerging-market powers to create their own parallel multilateral financial institutions. The BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- announced their own development bank in 2014, and China recently led the launch of a separate institution, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank....

Recently, the UK joined the Chinese Infrastructure Bank. It is understandable now. Other countries will follow suit if the USA's Congress continues to wallow in incompetence. 

The international venues show the incompetence of the USA Congress. In the USA the Congress consults with "Joe the Plumber" while allies and friends are looking to new venues to satisfy their need for responsible leadership. 

The USA's Congress is worried about the cheating China carries out, albeit less than before Obama's administration, but if the USA continues to be disabled in it's international ROUTINE responsibilities the USA won't be regarded as important. 

It is one heck of a Congress. The only importance they seek is leveraging power over the Executive Branch and to wage war, while the Executive Branch waits patiently for their actions on existing responsibilities. The problem here is CONGRESS, not the administration. When the administration is held unimportant there will be inconsistencies in enforcement of policy making existing policy impossible to enforce. 

CONGRESS needs to bring bills to the floor that matter, rather than continual votes over the ACA and other domestic interests that will meet a veto. The Congress need to end it's domestic politics on the floor of the House and Senate. There is a reason why politics on the floor of the legislature is at the very least an ethical violation. This is exactly what occurs when the majority party has a continual campaign of politics from one election to the next.

March 20, 2015

...SLOWLY but surely, (click here) Iran’s talks with the international community about its nuclear programme are approaching the make-or-break point. But, more important, the outcome could mark a turning point for the wider, and increasingly volatile, Middle East.

The rapprochement between Iran and its negotiating partners on the core nuclear issue is obvious. No one at this point seriously believes that Iran is maintaining an active programme to develop nuclear weapons, though not long ago it was almost conventional wisdom that the country was close to having them.

Now the focus is on ensuring that Iran would need a year or so to assemble a nuclear device if it ever decided to do so. But the concept of “breakout time” is dubious. If trust were to collapse, and the Iranian regime decided to abrogate all of the relevant international agreements, it is highly likely that it would get its weapon, even if the country itself was bombed repeatedly. The strategic emphasis on “breakout time” is thus misplaced.

The key to progress is to help turn Iran from a cause into a country, to paraphrase Henry Kissinger. Iran needs to focus on developing all of its human and material resources to become part of a region moving from confrontation to co-operation. The deal on the core nuclear issues is central to this approach, but so is a credible process for developing the trade and investment links that will facilitate Iran’s move from isolation to integration....

How was a man held in prison for two years as a witness?

There is video testimony allowed with the decision of the court. The prosecution and defense could have filmed the testimony with an understanding he was not to flee. What gives a judge authority to hold a man, documented or not, for two years in prison to insure he will testify. This is outrageous.

If video is unreliable, but, testimony can occur in transcript as well. There needs to be an investigation to this judge kidnapping and jailing a man for two years.

March 21, 2015

HILLSBORO, Oregon (AP) " A man who was jailed for 2 years (click here) so he couldn't avoid taking the witness stand in his son's murder trial was freed Thursday after providing two hours of often-combative testimony.
 
Benito Vasquez-Hernandez committed no crime, but a judge ordered the 60-year-old Mexico native held because of fears he would flee rather testify against his son, who is accused of killing in 2012 in the West Coast state of Oregon.

Federal and state material witness laws allow for the detainment of anyone who might have information about a criminal investigation. Though the use of such laws is not uncommon, it is extremely rare for someone to be held as long as Vasquez-Hernandez was.

"I don't like to be in jail. I want to get out," Vasquez-Hernandez said shortly after taking the stand Thursday. He and his son, Eloy Vasquez-Santiago, both wore orange jail clothes.

Prosecutors allege the son killed Maria Bolanos-Rivera, a mother of six who disappeared in 2012....

I'd be afraid of police, too. Isolation from a free and independent life can be considered torture. If Benito Vasquez-Hernandez is easily intimidated by others he is not a reliable witness. 

How widespread is this practice?

...Defense attorney Tim Bowman elicited testimony that the father cannot read or write. Vasquez-Hernandez said he feels confused when more educated people speak and that he's scared of police.